My ds is 11 months old and refuses anything but the breast. I was not overly worried about this but he recently got a horrible double ear infection that required antibiotics. We could not get him to take a DROP of the medicine. I am pretty sure that everone thinks we are exaggerating when we say he refuses to take anything!

Anyway... Presumably since he got none of the medication he needed for his ears, his ear drum exploded !!! Then the Dr gave him I.V. antibiotics and now his ears are all cleared up.

Now everyone keeps saying things like "If you had tried feeding him earlier that wouldn't have happened" (I did try to feed him baby food twice a day from 4 months to 8 months), or "Why don't you just make him eat?" (because he wont!), and my personal favorite "If you had given him formula in a bottle this would not be happening"

Has anyone else had a baby that refused EVERYTHING but the breast past a year?

Looking for advice, support, and someone who doesn't see this as my fault.

FIRST OFF
IT IS NOT YOUR FAULT!!! My DD would not take a bottle, I pumped and had a stash of BM (for emergency which I had to throw away ) as no one would use it to feed her (if they wanted) which was fine with us but she never really took a bottle and she did not even want any solids until about 14 mths (noticeably), although we tried at 8mths and again at 1 year she really just had bm until the 14mths. She got one ear infection at 13mths old and they gave her two shots of Rocephin, (I know the shot is painful but it cleared it up) so take note about the shot (Rocephin). NOTE: I am not promoting shots just that this may be an option-for you to look into....

I don't think your DS will ever have another ear infection anyway
my DD and DS only had 1 ear infection they both were ebf and neither took bottles

Don't listen to "other" people, about if you had...blah-blah-blah
IMO if he was FF then he would most likely have more ear infections...

IV may be invasive but your DS is OK now mama and at least he has your bm keeping him healthy. Just let him pick "first foods" off your plate and relax he will eat solids eventually but he may not be as interested until a month or two...THAT can be very normal. Now my DS started picking off my plate at about 11mths and then really did not get to interested until about 13 mths. sorry...long and if there are errors in this I'm typing fast and NAK

Well, I swear my 2 ODS would have died if not for BF for the first 2 years of life but really weren't interested in "real" food until after 18 mos. They both ate table foods starting around 10-12 mos. And by the time I had #3, I didn't really even bother buying baby food. We fed him avocado and bananas and things like that for first foods.

(Oh, and PS - ODS has some pretty hairy food allergies - like wheat and peanuts and he weaned at 35 mos. The poor kid. I was feeding him PB and J sandwiches Looking back I'm glad I continued to nurse him, who knows? It could be why we didn't have more problems with him since the poor guy was eating stuff that was making him sick )

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Hmmm, I heard refusal to eat can be cause by texture sensitivities. I read a story on another board about a woaman who's child also refused to eat, no one believed her and after long term failure to thrive her child had to hospitalized . Cps was called and she was assessed for Munchhausen... Eventually this woman was able to convince someone to actually help her and a physical therapist helped the child learn to eat.

I delayed solids until my 3rd son was 11+ months he never had a problem with food and is by far the best eater out of all of them.

My Ds took a bottle from birth to 5 months (didnt want to use a bottle at all but he was introduced to one in the NICU grr). Then he just stopped taking one at all and everyone was getting upset with me, including my mother. We finally taught him to drink through a straw because he just refused all types of bottles and sippy cups. He will occasionally eat some baby food (hes 8 months) but really just likes to nurse. And EVERYONE makes comments to me about it. "My child was totally on table food by 9 months" "Oh you dont want to be breastfeeding him past a year so you better just stop nursing him so much". Well I cant force him to eat baby food. And I cant force him to take a bottle. And I'm sorry, but hes not getting any emotional stimulation from drinking from a straw. So don't feel bad mama. You are doing awesome for your child. It's hard to be a full time food source for someone, but its so special too. :hug:

Hang in there mama. My DS1 refused to try solids until 9+ months. He's 6 now so I forget exactly when. I got yelled at by the pediatrician we went to at the time for not starting solids yet. As if I hadn't tried. Consequently they also made a big deal about his iron being on the low end. "If you had started him on iron fortified cereal this wouldn't be a problem." I wanted to tell her to come try to feed him the cereal if she thought she could do a better job raising my child. We finally got him to try solids by offering him an unmashed banana to play with. With supervision of course. Then he finally opened his mouth for food. FF children are more likely to get ear infections so the idea that if he were FF this wouldn't have happened is wrong.

I agree, if he wasn't nursing you may have had a TON of trouble getting him to eat anything. I did have to force give my dd meds. when she had a bad UTI and was younger, she'd eat food but didn't want anything to do with meds.

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The ENT my mother saw for her persistent ear infections told her to try a few drops of peroxide in the ear for ear infections. Keep your head tilted to the side until it stops fizzing, then let it come out. I have been doing that now for myself as well as my dd and it really works. So sorry for this to happen to you mama! BM is the best food for your child, he will eat when he is ready - just keep offering daily.